Volunteers are ready to transplant the first cedar at Bitter Lake P-Patch.Earlier this year, I had my first exposure to the phenomenon that is “The World’s Strongest Man.” As I sprawled on the couch in proper channel-surfing form, I found myself paused on the extreme sports channel for a few minutes of astonished viewing. Very large, very strong men pulled semi trucks with their bare hands! They lifted giant rocks up flights of stairs! They carried refrigerators down long runways!

Lately I’ve been thinking of these strongmen’s Herculean efforts as I witness the feats that P-Patch volunteers are accomplishing in the quest for new and expanded P-Patch community gardens. Over the past year of garden-building, community gardeners and friends have completed demonstrations of might to rival those shown on TV. P-Patchers have moved mountains of soil! Hauled heaps of stone uphill! Transplanted whole trees! Mixed wheelbarrow upon wheelbarrow of concrete!

At the Eastlake P-Patch endurance was the name of the game as volunteer garden builders handcarried (uphill!) and stacked 35 yards of concrete rubble and 30 tons of granite paving, not to mention the 10 pallets of concrete mix and 25 yards of gravel that make up the new garden walls throughout the garden’s three levels.

At the Barton Street P-Patch in southwest Seattle, the gardeners strive for beautiful form, determined to utilize stores of local energy. It shows in the decorative stones that volunteers of all ages hand-dug, washed and placed in freshly poured concrete walls. Current score: 750 hand-washed stones, 48 mixed batches of concrete...and counting.

In a feat of speed and an application of the “many hands make light work” approach, Unpaving Paradise P-Patch volunteers moved 10 truckloads of compost (120 cubic yards) in one weekend. The mountain of compost that nearly filled the block of a city street now fills their new beds.

The small but mighty team at Bitter Lake P-Patch in North Seattle achieved a personal best by transplanting four big cedars to save the trees while making space for the new community garden.

The Parks and Green Spaces Levy is providing $2 million in funding, but it’s thanks to the strength of the communities building these new and expanded gardens that the P-Patch Program continues to grow. Here’s to the world’s strongest P-Patch community gardeners!